Descision Time: What light to buy

Well, this is my quandary.

Currently I have one 22,000 lumen CFL home built veg light and two 400W HPS's for flower. My issue is I need another veg light and I have several options of what to do.

1) Buy 600W HPS for flower, replace 400W with that, and move 400W to veg swaping to MH conversion bulb.

Pros: More light = more energy = more weed. This will give me about 40,000 more lumen in flower and a 38,000 lumen veg light.

Cons: Cost; more than twice the cost of the fluorescent option below.
More heat, might have to upgrade cooling.
Will have to upgrade power circuit to handle extra amps, it's right at the edge now; plug in another fan or vacuum and it's lights out.

2) Buy additional fluorescent lamp for veg.

Pros: MUCH cheaper and easier over all. I could even just get a shop light and some veg bulbs and go super cheap.

Cons: No more extra lumen for flower.
Almost half the power of 400W.
I'll still end up buying a 600W eventually since I want them.

3) Buy a smaller MH light for veg.

Pros: None that I can think of.

Cons: Almost the same price of a 400W and half the lumen.
I'll still end up buying a 600W eventually since I want them.

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I'm fairly certain I'm going with option 1. Even though it's the most expensive and requires the most work from me I think in the log run it's what I want.

So, what do you think? What should I do?

Sounds like you've made the decision for both of us, Kludge. (Gonna have to get indoor set up fairly soon, I've got clones and three seeds I want to pop like nobody's bidness.)

Thanks for the input guys. I sucked it up and went with the more expensive option, the 600W, and got a good light instead of a cheap one this time too.

Here she is with her little ladies:

Nice bro, the 600 is def the way to go.

i like floros better

Anc777 said:

i like floros better

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Yeah, floros are much better but all I could afford was the 600W HPS...

Kludge said:

Yeah, floros are much better but all I could afford was the 600W HPS...

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Floros much better? OMG I hope your kidding right? HPS is way better then floro!! Its not even a competition, HPS will consistently yield twice what CFL will given everything else is equal.

NoDrama said:

Floros much better? OMG I hope your kidding right? HPS is way better then floro!! Its not even a competition, HPS will consistently yield twice what CFL will given everything else is equal.

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ALERT! ALERT! Sarcasm meter malfunction! ALERT! ALERT!


Yeah, I think he was joking.

Seamaiden said:

ALERT! ALERT! Sarcasm meter malfunction! ALERT! ALERT!


Yeah, I think he was joking.

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Sometimes it's just not worth saying it though, especially when it should be so obvious...

It was just some newb trying to up their post count by posting random bullshit posts (yeah, CFL's are better).

Aaa.. what should be and what is are two different things. Besides, not everyone gets everyone else's sense of humor. I just get yours. I think ND was also trying to be serious without being crappy, that's why I poked a little fun.

yeah, it's all good.

what kind of 600 watter did you buy. I have two 400 watters now one for flower and one for veg but I want to get a 600 watter for flowering.

Congrats on the 600watter!!! You made the right decision . you wont regret it.

The most light you can afford to buy and operate, the better off you are I guess. I think you're only going for personal consumption as opposed to for profit. If this is the case, I'd imagine you don't need a ton of weed for personal consumption unless you're reallllllly in pain or suffering and can't eat. Obviously you're not growing for medicinal redistribution or you'd have this all down.

I use an eight-bulb 48" T5 Teklight with all cool tubes, for veg. That's 432 watts, around 40,000 lumens. You can even put warm bulbs in it and flower with it. For flowering, I use Lumatek digital ballasts (1 x 400w, and 2 x 600w). I've been extremely pleased with all of the above. Not the cheapest route, but I have zero regrets, glad I bought what I did.

I got a Sun Systems system. It came with the Yield Master II with 4" connectors for ventilation. And I LOVE that reflector, it's huge.

The whole system appears to be by Sun Systems as the hood and ballast have a proprietary power connector.

One thing I've noticed is the 600W actually seems to be less hot than the 400W. It might be because of the better reflector but the room temp actually seemed to go DOWN! That might be because I got a good bulb instead of the cheap-o bulb.